The Business Case for Coaching in Organizations: Best Practices for Executive Coaches with Brenda Smith

Please join the Pittsburgh Coaches Association Lunch and Learn Meeting on Wednesday, September 10 at 11:15 a.m. at Station Square in Pittsburgh with Guest Speaker, and Founder of the PCA, Brenda Smith, where she will make the business case for coaching.

Coaching has grown to a $1.5 billion industry in less than 10 years. As coaches, do we know the value of our work? The business impact we have? Coaching is becoming a strategic intervention in the War for Talent, and as coaches we are the change agents and champions of softer skill for hard results in the global business environment. Eighty percent of the S&P 500 comes from intangibles - that means human assets are the critical factor in creating financial outcomes. As coaches, we can impact the language and behaviors that drive the metrics of business.

Critical issues that will be addressed are the business case for coaching in organizations, demographic and global mega-trends, integration of the HR & CEO mindset, marketing coaching in an economic downturn, and best practices for coaching in organizations

Brenda Smith, is the founder and CEO of the international coaching firm, Peoplesmith Global, Inc. Combining 20 years experience as a Wall Street Executive with more than a decade of coaching leaders, she is convinced that it's the soft skills that produce the hard results. Brenda is a certified, executive coach who views coaching in organizations strategically. A student of both behavioral economics and human capital strategy, she champions coaching as the catalyst for moving subjective, personal experience into objective financial results. Her coaching methodologies use applied emotional intelligence to transform executives and organizations from their Working Strategy into their Winning Strategy... because businesses don't succeed, people do! Brenda is one of 1500 coaches worldwide who will soon be awarded the designation of ICF Master Certified Coach.

Brenda can be reached at 412-362-2622 or by e-mail at Brenda@peoplesmithglobal.com. Visit her website at www.peoplesmithglobal.com.

In addition to coaching and speaking, members of the Pittsburgh Coaches Association conduct workshops and seminars and for several years have also conducted teleclasses on a regular basis. These teleclasses are now held monthly, and are an opportunity for Pittsburgh coaches to share some of their coaching knowledge and experience with participants, as well as their passion for helping others to move forward and reach new levels.

Teleclass topics range from exceptionality to creating space, leadership, career tips and finding your dreams, and can help people to make important changes and take steps to reach their potential.

This month's teleclasses are on August 20. Join us for a great learning experience with Pittsburgh coaches. Teleclasses take place throughout the day and are free to anyone who registers. Click here to register for one or all of the teleclasses. Registration takes just a few seconds and is FREE. A conference call number will be immediately sent to you via e-mail.

What do you really want? More time? More money? More appreciation? More satisfaction? More balance in your life? Or do you simply want to be more effective in your work and in your life?

What are your goals and what is your plan to get there? David Goldman works with people who want to get to a new level in their work and in their life. He will help you define your goals and develop a plan to get there. Further, he will work with you to organize yourself around who you are and where you want to go. Then, he will help you set up a system of accountability to keep you on track or get you back on track when you find yourself off on a tangent.

What David really does is to get you to see things in a different way and then coach you to act and communicate more effectively. In this way, you will produce unprecedented and outrageous results.

Since November of 1989, David has worked with Business Owners, Executives, Sales People, Financial Planners, Attorneys, Accountants, Teachers, Fund Raisers, Politicians, Managers and Students. During this 19-year career, David has identified the sweet spot of his target market.

Previously, David spent 15 years in the Insurance and Financial Planning Industry as an agent, manager, trainer and was a member of the Million Dollar Round Table. He understands what it takes to go out and make something happen.

If you are someone who needs to make something happen, bring in more business, attract more prospects and clients, produce results, or be more effective in front of an audience of any kind, David can coach you to great results.

He focuses primarily on Professionals who want to bring in more business and don't want to think of themselves as sales people. His non-toxic, and non-threatening approach is perfect for Attorneys, Accountants and Financial Planners.

In addition to having you see things differently, think differently, and act differently, David has three distinctly different processes for selling, getting referrals and communicating and he guarantees the results.

So, if you are ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work on getting the results you really want, David can coach you to get there.

Do You Have the Monday Morning Career Blues?

By Karen Litzinger, MA, NCC, LPC
Litzinger Career Consulting

It's 6:00am and the alarm goes off. You pull the covers over your head trying to deny that it's Monday morning. You've got a busy week ahead, and living for the weekend doesn't seem to be working anymore. Working just for the money seems meaningless too. You have a bad case of the Monday morning career blues!

Before you let it get so bad that you need to take a mental health leave, take some time from your hectic schedule to assess your situation. Plan your next move, rather than moving out of desperation. If you are randomly browsing Monster ads, you may be setting yourself up for a move from the fire to the frying pan.

The first strategy is to assess what exactly is making you unhappy. This will help you determine how big of a change you will need or if it makes sense to adjust your current situation... or make changes to yourself!

Look honestly at your situation and assess these issues:

Career Field: How do you like your everyday tasks? Are you using your natural skills? Does it feel like a "fit" or do you feel different than most people doing similar work? Does the work inherently not match your values, such as meaning, or lifestyle preferences, such as balance?

Specific Employer: Perhaps the field is fine, but it's not working with this specific employer. Is there a mismatch regarding policies, philosophy, politics or ethics? Is your unhappiness about your supervisor? Or is it about specific working conditions like physical setting, location, and hours?

The Industry: Maybe the work and employer are fine, but you're not interested in the services or products of your organization, so it is hard to get motivated. Or is there something for which the industry is inherently known (competition, hours, unprofessionalism, travel), such that you would not likely find another employer that would be any better?

You: Take a close look at yourself. Has this unhappiness followed you around from job to job? For example, if you are inherently a workaholic, you may never find balance at a different employer unless you make internal changes. If you see patterns of relationship issues, then a career change will not necessary solve any problems. Also look at yourself in terms of the power that you have to make external as well as internal changes. If you believe your work is a match regarding the career field and you like the employer, perhaps it is simply a matter of seeking more challenges or restructuring your responsibilities.

Shoulds: Is your unhappiness from reacting to internal or external pressures? If you feel like you are "supposed to be" moving to a higher position, or "should" be using your education more, then examine why you are putting this pressure on yourself. If you feel like your family "expects" you to make more money, have an honest conversation to check out your assumptions. If these issues are "wants" rather than "shoulds," then they are likely legitimate motivations.

It can be hard to step outside of oneself and objectively assess one's situation. Consider getting help from a career counselor, life coach or therapist at this initial stage. If you decide that you definitely want or need a career or job change, be sure to seek a career counselor or coach whose work focuses exclusively in this arena. If the changes you need to make are internal or dealing with your current work situation, then you may want to work with a life coach or therapist primarily.

If you are exploring a career change, the following model is one that most career counselors use:

Assess Yourself

Interests: What tasks and subject areas do you enjoy, or ideally give you passion? Reflect on what parts of your jobs you have most liked. What did you enjoy doing as a child? What do you like to read? What clues can you gain from your hobbies and community activities?

Skills: What comes most naturally to you? Bright people can make themselves do many things, so look at what is most effortless. This doesn't mean taking the easy way out. You will be able to achieve much more if you are tapping your natural talents. Although you may be tempted to capitalize on your degree and experience, in the early stage of exploring, don't limit yourself.

Values: What is important to you? What are you seeking out of work or life? Is it happiness, money, intellectual challenge, meaning, balance? This is different for everyone, and there is technically no right or wrong answer. Just watch not to be influenced too much by those around you. Work values also relate to ones specific environment, such as the physical surroundings, people, and schedule.

Personality: Who are you naturally? We can all make ourselves fit into a situation as needed, but we don't want to go through life feeling like a square peg in a round hole. If you honor your natural personality and preferences, then you are not only happier, but everyone around you will be happier too!

Explore What's Out There

There are two areas you are exploring: What job function or field matches my interests, skills, values and personality? What product, service, issue or population do I want to focus on? The tricky part of the career planning model is to find a manageable way to explore these two areas. You don't want to simply browse Internet ads since half of the jobs aren't advertised. Even if you use a legitimate career planning resource like the Occupational Outlook Handbook, the exploration process is still random. Career testing used in career counseling is a useful way to link information about self to what's out there. But it is through the one-on-one counseling process, that insights are significant. Otherwise career testing can feel too directive or alienating. Once you decide on a manageable cluster of careers to explore, take it in stages: websites, books, networking, classes, and volunteering. Everyone deserves career success and happiness! Go for it!

©2007, Litzinger Career Consulting. Permission granted to reprint this article so long as the text and by-line are not changed and reprinted intact with all links made live. Karen Litzinger, MA, LPC, owner of Litzinger Career Consulting, provides career counseling, job search advising, outplacement consulting, and business etiquette training. More information is available at www.KarensCareerCoaching.com

We invite experienced coaches, as well as those new to the profession, to join the Pittsburgh Coaches Association (PCA). This is an exciting time to be a member! We are a 501(c)6 professional organization, and an International Coach Federation (ICF) chapter.

Additional benefits for member coaches include networking opportunities with other professional coaches, a profile on PCA's 'Find a Coach' website directory, discounts for monthly luncheon meetings featuring interesting and relevant speakers, a forum to offer teleclasses on coaching-related topics of your choice, and special events to raise the profile of coaching within the community. There are many more benefits; please don't hesitate to become a part of one of Pittsburgh's best professional associations.

Effective July 1st, join for 2008 at the prorated fee of only $65 as a PCA Member, or only $55 as a PCA Associate Member. You can now register to become a member online at www.pittsburghcoaches.org. Join today.

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